Thursday, January 08, 2015

Well I knew what to expect as soon as I heard of the terrorist attack in Paris - the Islamaphobes would be crawling out of the woodwork, blaming a religion of a billion people for the work of a tiny faction.

Sam Harris has not yet weighed in, but Jerry Coyne has made sure that the New Atheist/Evolutionary Psychology/Islamaphobia brigade has been heard from.

Jerry Coyne If they determine the killers were Muslim extremists, let us then hear the “moderate” Muslims throughout the world decry this brutality. And Ben Affleck: are these murders the fault of Western colonialism, or religious extremism per se?

And Bill Maher was an asshole again, of course. I used to enjoy watching Bill Maher but ever since he's become the king of the Islamaphobes I've given up. And let's face it, he was always kind of sexist and smug too. But what all the members of the New Atheist brigade believe is that unless a Muslim has come out and made a statement in opposition to a terrorist act, they will be suspected of being a terrorist sympathizer. That's the kind of bigoted freaks that Maher, Coyne, Harris and the rest of them are.

And the Freedom From Religion Foundation reminded me why I will never join them - they posted a quote from Sam Harris on their Facebook page, something about 9-11, that was supposed to be a response to the Paris attack.